1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements to pillboxes in general and to new and useful improvements in pillboxes designed for homecare with a plurality of compartments designed to simplify and improve the accuracy of unsupervised medication despensing in the home. Each homecare pillbox consists of preferably seven (7) see-through compartments with separate lids. Each compartment lid is marked preferably with a number as one (1) through seven (7) and preferably also a letter indicating the day of the week. Braille, indicating the same information, may also be embossed on each cover lid. Unsupervised patients use the pillbox to ensure that the proper medication is taken at the correct time. Where multiple doses are required the pillboxes are designed for readily releasable snap-together structure to create a single unit capable of holding several different types of medications taken at different times during the day. Different medication times may be indicated also by using various colored lids or by marking a roughened surface.
2. Brief Description of Prior Art
Background of the invention is contained in prior patents issued to the same inventor U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,084,695 issued Apr. 8, 1978, 4,253,572 issued Mar. 3, 1981 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,462 issued Sept. 13, 1983, all incorporated herein by this reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,695 relates to a clear plastic pillbox having an intermediate longitudinal channel and lateral partitions which form a multiplicity of compartments therein for storage and convenient dispensing of medicament tablets. The pillbox is sealed by a clear plastic cover having a plurality of slots through its surface which form peripheral seals around the projections of the lateral partitions above the side walls of the pillbox, and thus individual sealing tabs are provided for each of the compartments created by the longitudinal channel and lateral partitions. The individual sealing tabs are frangible and may be broken away to provide access to particular compartments, which may be preloaded by pharmacists with medicament tablets or doses of medication for scheduled use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,572 relates to a pillbox or container wherein individual compartments can be opened by manually removing a tab having a construction such that each individual compartment becomes airtight. An integral continuous depending flange on the underside of each tab interfaces with the top of the respective compartments.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,462 is a divisional of the application of the preceding U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,572. It discloses, like said parent, but also claims a loading tool constructed and adapted for use with the preferred box disclosed in the parent application. The box is rectilinear, preferably covered, and having a bottom provided with a series of recesses geometrically related to the correspondent geometric relationship of the compartments in the container so that pills, capsules or tablets can be dumped into the loading appliance and then positioned by agitation in suitable places in the bottom of the appliance. By inverting the container over the aligned pills and then inverting the two together, the pills will drop into the compartments corresponding to those in the container.
Prior art deemed most relevant in the respective patents above referred to are listed therein as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,001,045, 5/1935 Weiss, 53/392 X PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,143,518, 1/1939 Kolin, 53,392 X PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,375, 1/1956 Pace, 220/21 X PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,034,733, 1/1976 Worden, 53/392 X PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,695, 4/1978 Halbich, 206/601 X PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,751, 12/1979 Gillissie, 53/392 X